The oil industry isn't the only one with a boom-and-bust cycle: just ask some of the high-profile technology companies — and the credit unions that serve them.

Consumers using mobile wallets or mobile banking apps are generally more engaged with their banks or retailers, creating a richer behavioral profile — and fraudsters are looking to exploit this by taking over these users' devices and, by extension, their bank accounts.

When it comes to the speed of payments, consumers used to be satisfied with just real-time confirmation of a person-to-person (P2P) transaction and the promise that funds were on their way. This isn’t necessarily the case anymore, and the social implications associated with payments are driving the shift in demand.

It’s too soon to know how the futuristic Internet of Things (IoT) — the array of Web-connected devices and home appliances — will handle payments, but older concepts such as Near Field Communication and prepaid cards already have an advantage.

By allowing commercial clients to authenticate via an eye scan, Wells Fargo is making a burdensome task simple. Secil Watson, head of wholesale Internet solutions, is pushing the bank to make digital banking easier for commercial clients.

1st Mississippi FCU in Meridian, Miss., has adopted Sharetec as its new core system to assist with fulfilling certain strategic goals.

PayNearMe has long offered a service designed for consumers who prefer to use cash in a digital world, but even it has to accept the need to get on board with electronic payments.

Samsung announced a partnership with Citibank Singapore Limited enabling support for Samsung Pay on newer Samsung handsets in the Singapore region. Samsung Pay will launch there this summer following a pilot, the technology maker said in a May 30 press release.

EMV certification provider Fime has received EMVCo approval to support the use of its global test tool for the development of payment applications that use a handset's secure element.

Given the news about the recent bank thefts carried out over the Swift messaging system, banks might be wondering if there is an alternative for cross-border payments. Flatly, there isn't.

The acceleration of the Affordable Care Act, along with the longer trend toward consumer-directed health care finance and high deductible plans such as health savings accounts, are decentralizing health care payments.

How can banks benefit from a spurt of mobile payments innovation that is enabling faster checkouts with the advantage of greater security for customers?

A recent spate of breaches on Asian banks that allowed hackers access to the Swift network have resulted in finger pointing, and some calls for creating a new, more secure network. But the issues faced by Swift would likely be the same with any replacement network.

Credit bureau TransUnion is diversifying its online security services with a strategic partnership announced this week with Dashlane, provider of a fast-growing password-management platform.

U.S. banks, already troubled to put in place the alliances necessary to operate in Asia and other parts of the world, have even more to worry about in light of investigators' allegations that North Korea played a role in the cyber attacks on Swift partner banks throughout Southeast Asia as well as the Bangladesh account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Consumers, especially millennials, increasingly prefer to do everything on mobile devices, including signing up for bank accounts. But as some FIs start to open accounts this way, how can they tell the real customers from crooks?

Coin-counting machines came into vogue in the 1990s when Commerce Bank started installing "Penny Arcades" in its branches throughout New Jersey. They were a huge hit for a while, but banks have soured on the machines in recent years as usage declined and maintenance costs increased.

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

The fight between Visa and Walmart over authenticating chip cards could have a negative outcome for everyone involved, regardless of which side wins.

To attract this technology-savvy generation, CUs must understand their motivations and their needs—and have the online, mobile and social media tools that they’ve come to depend on.